I woke in this strange forest late in the morning, its odd still not having momma come lick me awake. Her grave, or at least the one I gave her, is warm from the sun and from me lying so close to it. The flowers around it have wilted and I know I’ll have to go down to the river and pick more for her. As I get up though I take a small sniff of the air around me, I can smell other deer and that scares me so I slowly move as quiet as I can away from there. Breakfast and some fun in the Birch Forest sounds better than anything, and it doesn’t take me long to find either. In the shade of the tall white trees I find some amazing grass to nibble on, the dew from this morning is still settled on it making it moist as well. I played pretty hard, dashing in-between the trees; I saw a squirrel and chased it too before it climbed up a tree.

It was about now that I started feeling really thirsty, the May sun still less forgiving than the April one. So after a little bit of deliberation I made my way to the watering hole. I don’t typically go because of how many deer that I don’t know are there.. But this time there is no one, I smile as I trot up to the water, lean down and take a massive gulp. It isn’t long before I’m pawing at the water and grinning at the splashes it makes, even less for me to run into the lake and start jumping around in the water. The frogs are leaping out of the way and the fish fly from under my feet. The dragonflies buzz around and I chase them as fast as I can in knee deep liquid.

I wasn’t aware of the other fawns there, and when I finally spotted them I bent low to the water, ears back and just watching. Once approached me and bowed, the others just sat there and watched. I moved a little closer, bowed and then cowered away from them, unsure how to feel around them. The first cocked his head and then pawed at the ground, jumped towards me and then dashed off towards his friends. I followed him for a little bit, keeping my distance but letting them know I was still behind them. It wasn’t long before they lead me to a larger buck. He had stripes along his body and huge antlers. When I came in he gave a low bow, returning the favor I still jumped back and shrunk in on myself.

He cocked his head and then continued on. I watched them for a while, the larger deer would goad the others into chasing him and they would prance around a little before they would stop and he would goad another one. After a while I got used to them, smiling as I got up and joined in the case. The fawns didn’t run too far off and that was fine, but I was looking for a race! So I decided to see if the larger deer would follow me for a chase in the woods. Sure enough after a little running back and forth we tear off into the forest, earth and grass kicking up behind us.

We tore across the ground before he stopped a little sooner than I expected. In front us stood a stag as dark as my worst nightmares. Bones painted his body and horns as red as blood jutted out from his exposed head. The buck next to be gave a low bow and I did the same before running behind him, scared out of my mind of this new deer. At first nothing happened, no one moved or said anything.. Then slowly the black deer turned to look at us, he let out a low noise and creaked towards the buck I was with. Out of nowhere they both dashed away, I was close behind the striped stag while the bone deer ran after us. I wasn’t sure if my legs would be able to take me, and I was so scared, but I made sure to follow after the buck as close as I could.

Salvation lay in the playground where several other adult deer rested. The dead deer seemed to have left us alone at that point and I was so glad.. I had no idea who these new older people were so I politely excused myself from them. It was sunset by the time I got back to the lake where this started. I picked a few new red flowers for momma and made my way back to her grave to sleep for a little while longer..


I have no idea who the friend was that I made, I never got their name, but it was nice to have had some fun with the deer around here.. Maybe things won’t be too bad here..